U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director L. Francis Cissna on Wednesday defended striking "nation of immigrants" from his agency's mission statement, arguing that his agency ultimately serves the American people.

"Who does the agency serve?" Cissna asked at an event in Washington, D.C., according to a report by the Washington Examiner. "I think there been a misunderstanding of that over the years... People kind of naturally fall into the belief that the individuals that we serve are the people that we interact with every day when we take applications or petitions."

"I don't think that we serve them. We serve the people," Cissna continued. "We serve the American people who have conferred upon the agency a special mission through the Congress to administer these immigration laws."